This Week in Apps #17 - TikTok's Replacement, Hamilton, Trump, and more

Ariel Ariel
2 minute read 7/10/20

This Week in Apps is a short, no-fluff, round-up of interesting things that happened in the mobile industry. Here are our top highlights.

U.S. Mobile Download Index: App Store 86.38, Google Play 82.02


Talk less, watch more

Disney+ knows how to do "it" right. Last Friday, Disney+ added Hamilton, the musical you undoubtedly heard about, to its roster. As you can imagine, it brought new users to the app.

More than 300,000 new users downloaded the app between Friday and Sunday across the App Store and Google Play.

Also, Disney+ has this tiny quirk.

Postmates + Uber Eats = DoorDash?

There's been a lot of movement in the food delivery business over the last few weeks. First, #3 Grubhub was acquired, and now #2 Uber Eats has acquired #4 Postmates. But can the "reinforced" Uber Eats take on #1 DoorDash? If we strictly look at downloads, maybe. Expect more VC-sponsored burritos.

All PR is good PR

TikTok loyalists are a powerful group, and they really don't like Donald Trump. They claimed responsibility for low attendance to his rally in Tulsa last month, and this week they're responsible for hurting Trump's mobile app.

This week, more than 250,000 negative ratings were left on both the App Store and Google Play, pushing the app's average rating to a single star on both platforms. However, the "fake" downloads also propelled the app into the #4 position in the U.S. top chart. So, not all bad.

Found it!

Talking about TikTok... Last week I asked who's going to fill TikTok's gap. A question on the minds of analysts and teenagers alike. This week we saw a new contender emerge to claim some fame.

Byte app, from the original maker of Vine (and the less known ๐Ÿ‘), is now the #1 free app in the U.S. TikTok loyalists didn't love that and are leaving negative ratings. See a pattern here?

Reopening, reclosing

Apps in the travel category, which suffered the most from the lockdown, saw a glimmer of hope as states reopened. But as cases have been rising sharply since that started, downloads have declined again to lockdown levels, as indicated by the Mobile Download Index.

That's it for this week. Get these insights by email by subscribing to the newsletter.

App Intelligence for Everyone!

The insights in this report come right out of our App Intelligence platform, which offers access to download and revenue estimates, installed SDKs, and more! Learn more about the tools or schedule a demo with our team to get started.

Are you a Journalist? You can get access to our app and market intelligence for free through the Appfigures for Journalists program. Contact us for more details.

All figures included in this report are estimated. Unless specified otherwise, estimated revenue is always net, meaning it's the amount the developer earned after Apple and Google took their fee.

Tagged: #twia #covid-19

Related Resources

This Week in Apps - Betting Big
This Week in Apps
This Week in Apps - Betting Big

#225 - How many people went non-traditional this election, X and ChatGPT saw their biggest month of revenue, some streaming platforms are stuggling to grow, and more.

This Week in Apps - Native or Non-Native?
This Week in Apps
This Week in Apps - Native or Non-Native?

#224 - Is Non-Native app development on the rise in 2024? Disney+ and Hulu stop taking new subscriptions on the App Store, Arc Browser goes into maintenance mode, Bluesky takes a new investment round, and the challenge of companion AI apps.